catch on

verb

1. to become popular or fashionable

2. to grasp mentally; understand

Idioms and Phrases

Understand, as in Aunt Mary doesn't catch on to any jokes . The verb to catch alone was used with this meaning from Shakespeare's time, on being added in the late 1800s. Also see get it , def. 2.

Become popular, as in This new dance is really beginning to catch on . [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

A brazen robbery caught on video showed three masked men dressed as FBI agents entering a Riverside County home before restraining the occupants and robbing them.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But Beccuau said she was not ruling out the possibility that this involved more than the four suspects caught on CCTV.

Read more on BBC

For thousands of tourists caught on the island, the storm brought terror and uncertainty.

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That is, if they catch on, robots could end up making life worse for human carers.

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Sure, so-called alternative meats have caught on with some consumers, but the market is still small compared with the broader meat industry.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• catch 
• determine 
• discover 
• feature 
• feel 
• follow 
• get 
• have 
• hear 
• know 
• learn 
• notice 
• observe 
• perceive 
• realize 
• recognize 
• study 
• suffer 
• think 
• understand